My Eurovision pick

An ode to sparkling shiraz

Cherries and strawberries, chocolate and violets. It's my Friday night tradition: sparkling shiraz.

Milford Track

That's what I'm talking about!


The Last Supper (breakfast, actually)


Feeling tough on the boat trip


Crossing Lake Te Anau to the start of the walk


Whoops, here comes the weather


No turning back now


Lake Te Anau


First swing bridge


Walking done for the day


Vegetation around Clinton Hut


Sun sets on the first day


Watch out for keas!


Our fellow trampers


Camp cuisine


Evening entertainment


Raring to go on day two


Following the Clinton River


The sun tries to break over the mountains


They measure annual rainfall in metres around here


Demented bandicoot


Where we're headed




The road goes ever on


Many bridges to cross


Sweaty work


Hmmm, nice


The climb to Mintaro Hut


G-Man bags us the lower bunks


Kea-proofing


Day 3 -- the biggie -- started before dawn


Taking a breather on the zigzag up to Mackinnon Pass


We rock


Kings of the mountain



View from the top


Oh, yeah


OK, let's head down the other side


Gee, hope it doesn't rain!




Da boys


Nothing's gonna stop us now...


... except for our quaking legs


The G-Man walks towards Sutherland Falls


Soaked to the bone


Compound blood blisters call for drastic measures


We reach Dumpling Hut utterly buggered


Dinner of champions


The heavens opened overnight, and we were crossing crotch-deep creeks three abreast with linked arms for safety. Here's a swollen MacKay Falls


With 18km between us and the 2pm boat, it was head down and bum up. Except for this quick Whittaker's break under cover


All smiles at walk's end


The G-Man's first genuine smile in four days


Hot shower + clean clothes + champagne = priceless


Dave does Russell Crowe


Bluff oysters at Fishbone . Definitely not tramping food.


G-Man gets his hot chips


THE song of the tramp. Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!